[Intro] (guitar) [Verse 1] (softly, close) Sinigang and cold rain on the storm door The green-robed Niño on the sill My laptop closed eleven days now The man walked free, but this kitchen is still [Pre-Chorus] (gentle build) A package from Olongapo on the mat A rosary, an envelope, a face I do not know yet The line hands you the next thing sideways In a shoebox, in newsprint. I do not chase it. Not yet. [Chorus] (warm, lifted but soft) Three hearts at three tempos, one body A flutter, my own, and his slow one coming home No three hundred years for any of us And that is the whole of what I chose. I am not alone. [Verse 2] (softly) He is over the Susquehanna, forty minutes out I always know before the phone can say He is writing the thing they kept off every map NIGHTBLOOM, Halloran, the price they made us pay [Bridge] (tender) My mother laughs the new laugh in the hall Amihan, anak ko, the adobo is too dark Like your Lola, she says, she burned the bottom too Bodies that share a kitchen share a mark [Chorus] (soft, full-hearted) Three hearts at three tempos, one body A daughter turning, a river, a name to find Forty or fifty years to walk it The inheritance I chose, and it is enough, and mine [Outro] (whisper, fade) Luway-luway. It is enough. [End]
